A Major League Baseball (MLB) directive involving San Francisco Giants players wearing LGBT pride uniforms has sparked an outcry among professional athletes.
Former NFL captain Jack Brewer, current Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Ryan Thompson, and former MLB pitcher Roger Clemens defended the players who wrote Bible scripture on their rainbow-themed Pride Night caps during a June 12 baseball game against the Chicago Cubs.
Landen Roupp, J.T. Brubaker, and Ryan Walker scrawled Gen 9:12-16 on their hats.
Gen 9:12-16 is a reference to the Bible’s Noah’s Ark rainbow covenant.
According to the Bible, when God made the Noahic Covenant after the Great Flood, he promised Noah, his family, and all living creatures continued existence despite human flaws.
Clemens suggested that the MLB should have taken a vote among the players about wearing the hat.
“If you took a vote amongst the players, if they were wanting to wear this or that, it would've been a different outcome of what would've been said,” Clemens said on the Will Cain Show on June 17. “I love it that these guys show the blessings that the Lord has given them to be out there on that field.”
Roupp was the first pitcher to be seen displaying the verse, written in silver marker, followed by Brubaker and Walker.
Left-handed pitcher Sam Hentges opted out of wearing the hat entirely and instead wore the Giants' original black-and-orange team cap in the bullpen.
“It means that he’s pro-something,” Thompson added. “There’s nothing negative, there’s no anti, there’s nothing that says that he doesn’t support anything, or that he’s hateful, or anything like that at all. It’s all positive ... And I just thought that was really cool that he did that.”
Brewer, who was named team captain for the Vikings, Giants, and Eagles, called on President Donald Trump to intervene and argued in favor of filing a class action lawsuit.
"You're forcing a Christian to support June pride month," Brewer said. "There's no bigger violation to Christianity and Christ ... to put them in a compromised situation where they've got to go out there and market to millions of people something that is going directly against their religion. To force them to do that, and to threaten them, to fine them ... it should be criminal."